OC Crime Fighters Unveil Mobile Forensic Lab

An Orange County crime laboratory has earned international accreditation, FBI officials announced today.

The Orange County Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, which serves 14 federal state and local law enforcement agencies, received accreditation from the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board, meaning the laboratory meets or exceeds the international scientific standards.

The Orange County facility, which opened two years ago, is the 13th lab in the area to earn regional accreditation and the fifth to approved by the international program.

"We are very proud of the hard work and dedication to quality demonstrated by the Orange County RCFL team," said Bill Lewis, the FBI's assistant director in charge of the  Los Angeles division. "Laboratory accreditation is a vital plank in our efforts to provide the finest digital forensic services available to the hundreds of law enforcement customers who rely on the OCRCFL to help fight crime."

At today's announcement of the accreditation in Orange, crime lab staffers showed off a new mobile forensic laboratory that will enable investigators to use computers and other high-tech equipment to analyze devices, such as smart phones and tablet computer, in the field. The mobile lab is one of six that the FBI has in the country.

The Orange County Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory serves the FBI in Los Angeles; police in Fontana, Fullerton, Irvine, Newport Beach, Ontario, Santa Ana and Westminster; the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the Los Angeles Police Department; the Orange County District Attorney's Office, the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.

- City News Service